If you are in real estate and looking to create a new website for your business, using the best real estate website builder can make your work a lot easier.
While many stages of real estate brokering happen in an offline setting, many real estate agencies are starting to use digital means for prospecting. The internet presents many opportunities for real estate brokers to connect with potential home buyers and sellers in real estate markets. Most realtor websites, when done well, can be a great tool in generating leads and brand building, thus helping agents increase brand exposure.
Some folks might decide to work with 3rd party lead generation providers, but nothing beats having your own website. Real Estate lead capture works best when you have total control over how you're collecting your data.
How to pick the right website builder for your new real estate website?
Before we head straight into recommending best website builders, here is a quick checklist of things to look at before you embark on building your dream real estate website:
- IDX Integration
- Ease of use
- Price
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
IDX integration
Internet Data Exchange (IDX) is often used as a term to cover policies, standards, and software pertaining to the display of real estate listing information on websites. With IDX implementation on your website, you would be able to display listings and allow your customers to search for active listings.
As such, when looking for the best website builder, you definitely want to look into picking one that allows for easy IDX integration on your website!
Editor's Note: Learn more about implementing IDX with GoDaddy's website builder offerings on our community help page!
Ease of use
Not all website builders are made equal, but the best website builders should aim to make your live easier! When evaluating website builders, definitely look for one with features that you are able to use with ease. Most easy-to-use website builders offer drag and drop options that does not require you to be equipped with complex technical know-how. Some might offer more customisable options that may require basic technical knowledge.
Whichever option you may choose, always strike a balance between what is feasible and what is achievable! On top of that, you should look out for the available help and support options each website builder offers. For example, GoDaddy offers support via multiple channels such as email, live chat, phone and Whatsapp! This would allow you to get timely help should you run into any issues with
Price
Depending on the features that you are looking for, an affordable pricing point is definitely something to consider when you're choosing a website builder. If you are just starting out with your real estate business or new to website building, pick a starter package and explore its features. After that, decide if you would need to upgrade for a more advanced plan by evaluating the add-ons that you can get by paying more!
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
For a website to be easily discoverable via Google search, it needs to be search engine optimized. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of tactics that increase the chances your website will rank high on the search engine results page for certain keywords.
Some tips to ensure a well optimized site include great content and a good browsing experience. The reality is, having to deal with SEO for a website can be very daunting for a lot of beginners. As such, when you are picking a website builder, look for one that comes with SEO features. This would give you a good head start on getting your website optimized for traffic.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced web designer, website builders allow you to create a new website within minutes using the drag-and-drop editor. You don’t even need to have coding knowledge, it’s that simple.
Sounds like a tool you need? Great! We’ve shortlisted four of the best real estate website builders that may pique your interest.
Best real estate website builder
GoDaddy
GoDaddy has a comprehensive range of web products and services that made it one of the most preferred partners for real estate businesses wanting to establish an online presence. GoDaddy’s offering comprises:
- Domain name search and purchase
- Web hosting services with expert hosting support
- Managed WordPress for building and managing WordPress websites
- Digital marketing suite to help businesses engage with online customers
- Website builder to create a brand new website without web design knowledge
GoDaddy website builder stands out as the best real estate website builders in the market in a few ways. Firstly, the price plans are the most affordable amongst the four website builders listed in this blog.
GoDaddy pricing
Basic plan: S$5.99 (US$4.44) per month
Standard plan: S$11.99 (US$8.89) per month
Premium plan: S$12.99 (US$9.64) per month
It also has an extensive range of user-friendly features that not only support easy development of real estate websites but also seamlessly market the business to online customers with built-in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tools. What’s impressive is GoDaddy’s use of Artificial intelligence (A.I.) to assess the website’s traffic and analyse where the website is doing well and which areas require more adjustments. If you are new to website builder, choose from the wide selection of templates available to help you get started easily!
Importantly, real estate businesses can leverage the analytical data to strategise more effective online marketing campaigns to achieve their business goals.
Key features
- 24/7 customer service hotline
- Hundreds of website templates
- A.I. powered feature to assess online traffic
- Built-in marketing tools
- Free images for building a website
Webflow
Webflow is another user-friendly website builder that caters to those who have no coding knowledge. Even though Webflow’s price plans are not the cheapest, the highly customisable platform is often a preferred choice for web designers who don’t enjoy coding but want a flexible interface to customise their designs.
Webflow pricing
Basic plan: US$12.00 per month
CMS plan: US$16.00 per month
Business plan: US$36.00 per month
Enterprise plan: (Price not available)
Webflow's interactions and animations tools empower designers to build complex, rich animations without using codes.
Webflow has over 500 website templates. Real estate businesses are spoilt for choice and can more easily locate a design that resonates with their brand image. What’s also worth mentioning is Webflow’s animations tool that builds rich animations without codes. Businesses can make use of this feature to create interactive experiences when browsers engage with the websites.
Webflow’s content management system (CMS) is another great feature to have. It allows direct edits on the webpage without accessing the backend of the website. This means real estate businesses can conveniently update their content without spending additional costs to hire third-party developers to maintain and update their site content.
Webflow key features
- Over 500 website templates but mostly at additional cost
- Interactions and animations tools
- SEO tools
- Content management system
- Free to use before the website is launched
Squarespace
If you’re looking for the best real estate website builder with the most extensive templates, Squarespace is your choice. This is an easy-to-use website builder with many award-winning web designs that can be customised to suit real estate business needs. In terms of pricing, it is quite on par with Webflow but less competitive when compared with GoDaddy.
Squarespace pricing
Personal plan: US$12 per month
Business plan: US$18 per month
Basic Commerce plan: US$26 per month
Advanced Commerce plan: US$40 per month
Like other website builders, Squarespace has competitive built-in SEO and analytic tools to support real estate businesses in their online marketing and performance tracking. What makes Squarespace interesting is its ability to seamlessly integrate popular apps onto Squarespace websites. Real estate businesses that utilise the Squarespace website builder can conveniently integrate external platforms such as their social media accounts. This way, their websites can display content from their social profiles or automatically push content to their social media accounts.
Squarespace also has a mobile editing feature that offers a new way of managing website content. Business users just need to download the Squarespace app, available in Android and iOS, and they’ll be able to edit their web content even when they are on the go. This feature is extremely useful for real estate agents who are always on the road but still need to ensure their websites are up to date.
Squarespace key features
- 24/7 email enquiry
- An extensive list of templates and award-winning designs
- Built-in SEO tools
- Built-in analytics tool
- Connected services to integrate with popular apps
- Mobile editing
Editor’s Note: Want to know how to choose a domain name for your real estate business? Read this article for 5 useful tips.
InCom
InCom has positioned itself as the best real estate website builders designed solely for the real estate industry. It integrates some of the most relevant real estate-specific features and functional tools such as mortgage calculators, home valuation tools, price alert signups, leads generation, CRM and social media ads creation features. There is even an event calendar for scheduling property viewing dates.
InCom is more expensive than the other web builder on our list. This could be because the builder is targeted at the real estate industry and the features are designed with real estate businesses in mind. One key highlight is InCom’s IDX-ready feature. With IDX integration, real estate businesses that leverage the InCom website builder can connect to their local multiple listing service (MLS) to integrate its real estate listings into their websites. This can inject a lot more valuable content onto the website and increase engagement between browsers and real estate agents.
Looking at the bigger picture, InCom’s bigger price tag could be justifiable since it brings substantial content that other website builders can't provide.
Does this mean InCom is the best real estate website builder? It depends if real estate businesses love InCom’s dedicated features and IDX connections. Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.
InCom pricing
Agent real estate websites: US$49.95 per month (plus US$249.95 setup fee)
Google Ad Words Management: US$100 per month
Facebook Ads Management: US$100 per month
Marketing services: US$45 to US$300 per month
InCom is one of the very few website builders that provide dedicated online marketing services for real estate businesses. Even though the service is chargeable, it can still be quite a draw for real estate agents who want to have a lead-generating website but don’t have the time or manpower to manage it.
However, Incom‘s limitation lies in the small supply of design templates. Businesses that are fussy about website designs may have to compromise or spend US$4.95 for another template.
InCom key features
- 24/7 email enquiry and phone support (U.S. business hours)
- IDX-ready to integrate external real estate listings
- 17 website design templates
- Google Ad Words and Facebook Ad management (monthly fee applies)
- Marketing services (monthly fee applies)
- Built-in analytics tool, leads generation tool and CRM tool
Simplify your website creation process
Using a website builder can make your real estate website creation process so simple and efficient. Because it is already packed with all the right features and tools, you’ll save a lot of money and time scouting for additional plugins. Even professional web designers use website builders, so why not give it a try. All you need to do is to find a website builder with all the features that answer your objectives and you’re on your way to creating a marketable website. With the help of a good real estate website, it can boost your real estate business!
